Thermal imaging cameras are used in a variety of situations. For example, thermal imaging cameras are often used during maintenance inspections to thermally inspect equipment. Example equipment may include rotating machinery, electrical panels, or rows of circuit breakers, among other types of equipment. Thermal inspections can detect equipment hot spots such as overheating machinery or electrical components, helping to ensure timely repair or replacement of the overheating equipment before a more significant problem develops.
Traditional images are captured using a single focus distance. This can lead to the misfocus of certain objects in a target scene if there is a wide range of distances between the camera and the objects in the scene. In the case of infrared imaging, an out of focus target can result in less accurate temperature measurement. Moreover, while comparing temperature or heat signature of your target component with other identical components in the field of view, it is important to ensure all the components are completely in focus for accurate comparisons.
To address this issue, a user must take multiple images of a scene with each image having different targets in focus. Then the user must view each image separately to accurately analyze components of the image that may be positioned at a variety of depths. This can make full scene analysis overly time-consuming and cumbersome. Additionally, acquiring such images for comparison, particularly algorithmic based comparison, can be challenging for imagery taken with a hand-held camera, since images can be displaced from one another due to hand-jitter and the like.